Mumbai: Union Minister for Urban Development Ghulam Nabi Azad said while inaugurating a stadium here on 2 August that the role of minorities, especially Muslims, was very important in the victory of the Congress Party in the recent parliamentary elections and it cannot be forgotten. He hoped that in the forthcoming Maharashtra assembly elections also Muslims and other people will vote for the Congress for greater cooperation between the central and the state governments and for the progress and development of the country. He laid emphasis on enactment of stricts laws to check corruption in the country.
Maharashtra chief minister Susheel Kumar Shinde speaking on the occasion said that his government would fulfill the promises made to Muslims and implement Sri Krishna Commission’s recommendations regarding communal riots. More than 80 percent recommendations of the Commission have been accepted and implemented and the rest would also be implemented within a month.

He said that the black law of POTA has been widely misused and it must be abolished. He added that his government has set up a committee headed by a retired high court judge to review the cases of POTA prisoners and hoped that they would be set free soon.«